Looks like Tecnu missed a turn early on the bike but are back on track but it is possible a couple of lead teams missed the snowmobile trail to get over to the hydro cutline. The trail follows close to Fraud Lake but there is another road that goes more directly north which is where the tracking appears to have a few of those lead teams. Next set of refreshes will be interesting.

Top teams are a few km's away from leaving the hydrocut and trying to catch a westbound road to CP2. This last northbound section is particularly tough going. Hoping everyone makes the left turn at the end of it.

The top 4 teams are racing to CP4, with all different route choices following their swim after CP3. #33 Vallée Bras du Nord / Mundial St-Raymond had deeked west and hit the road for a quick run, but #8 Pullin Foot made good time going down along the lakes, and has hit the same road ahead of #33.

Will #33 follow around the top of the lake on the road, or shortcut through the bush directly to CP4?

#7 Tecnu and #16 Pentathlon des neiges are in hot pursuit on a route similar to #8.

Next batch of teams have also split into two camps: one heading southwest to take the road (like Vallée), the other taking a more direct trek down (like Pullin Foot et al.) Storm is leading this group.

Crazy run by #15 Unconquerable Badness! They turned out to be the only team to haul it out to the road, and boy did they fly down once they got there! No wonder with some of the fastest runners in the race.

A long line of other teams, led by Storm is whacking on the route taken by Pullin Foot, Tecnu, and Pentathlon.

Some interesting changes on the trek from CP4 to CP5: expert bushwhack navigator Benoit has led Pentathlon des neiges quickly to the next checkpoint to surge ahead into 1st place. Pullin Foot and Tecnu are close behind.

PDN was 16mins faster than the next team on this leg.

Meanwhile former leaders Vallee Bras du Nord have dropped back on the bushwhack, and Untamed Canada is trying to avoid it altogether by taking a roundabout way on a road.

The next group of teams behind the top 5 is emerging on the trek:- #15 Unconquerable Badness- #35 New Balance- #17 Storm RacingThey are pulling away from the rest of the teams at CP4 and racing each other.

The next batch coming out of CP3 are opting for the straight route through the bush instead of going out to the road.

Tecnu dropped the hammer on the big road run down to TA2, and has left Pullin Foot behind. Same amount of time as Pentathlon on this leg - but only 4mins separated the teams when PDN was leaving in their canoes to when Tecnu was arriving on foot.

When asked if they want ice cream, Tecnu replied, "No! We want the Beaver!!!"

While it doesn't replace being on the course I'd just like to say "FINALLY an AR tracking system and website leaderboard combo that works!" Usually by this time I have given up on the race web site or tracking beacons and instead turned to rely on a thread like this on AP where people are collectively trying to figure out what is going on. :-)

And just when things were working so well... Tecnu must have put their tracker into a dry bag so now we can only see two of the top three teams as we approach a very interesting route choice on the paddle. We have advised TA staff to ensure that other teams keep their trackers out for the paddle.

But thanks, Hammer! We're really happy with the system and with the reliability of the Delorme devices. I've received and replied to about 10 messages from teams and volunteers in the field. It's good to be able to communicate easily.

Actually, Tecnu is still tracking at the TA. So they left their tracker behind. It was a huge surprise to see them passed at a TA so this makes more sense. But... it is really disappointing for race fans.

CP7 just reported that Tecnu and Pentathlon des Neiges flew through the checkpoint together. Because they were ahead of schedule, CP7 had their cell phones turned off to save batteries so they were unaware of the need for Tecnu to serve the penalty. Bob is heading to TA3 where he will have to deliver bad news to his friends. They will serve the penalty there so the finish order will be correct.

High drama... These two awesome teams believe they are racing head to head so they are well ahead of Bob's fastest prediction for the course. So sad this had to happen though. It would be nice not to have this extra factor interfering with a pure battle between top racers.

Yes, they're fine, Tiny. Mrs. Tiny bought me French Fries at McDonald's and has gone to bed. They had some nav issues but are perfectly fine physically, and they're in good spirits. They were helping us move gear boxes!

Ya. Were fine tiny. My bad. Were cruising along doing great and boom mistake finding the road to the t/a. Called it after over 1.5 hours of trying to relocate ourselves. Great race though. Loved the bike.

Yup, fantastic race and once again, Bob, Barb, Barb and all the other volunteers did an amazing job as usual. I think Bob said at the meeting there were 120 racers and 30 volunteers!!

Can't say what my most memorable moments were, but I do know arriving at TA1 and being asked it I want an Ice Cream DrumStick sure does pop into mind easily! or 'Bent at CP5 asking if we wanted Cheese, crackers or coffee!

Sure, not really supposed to help racers, but everyone is human and if you are offering it to everyone no one is really getting an advantage!

Bob encourages volunteers to provide treats to all teams at CPs and offers to pay the bill. In many cases though, our volunteers refuse reimbursement for their various contributions to our event because it's rewarding enough to see the racers smile. Without the high quality and quantity of volunteers who offer to help us, we couldn't provide the same type of event experience. It's amazing each year to see volunteers go above and beyond as if Wilderness Traverse were their own event to manage - and of course, it is. Huge thanks to everyone involved.

Thanks for taking part in WT once again, Osteo, and congrats on the Mountain Goats' finish!

Looks like maybe the best AR coverage I've seen. Awesome job to Gstix, Bash and her crew of volunteers (Funderstorm, Bats, LosDobos) and all others out on course to help keep everyone up to date. It would be nice if the AR Champs in C.R. are as dialed in as WT was! :)

This may be as good a place as any to express my sincere thanks to our HQ media crew - Bats, Funderstorm and LosDobos. Once the race gets rolling, I get flooded with logistics - leaderboard updates, checking that CPs are set up on time in the correct locations (checked via GPS broadcast), arranging pick-ups for teams that drop out, interacting with racers who contact HQ from the course, talking to beaver carvers... :) I always think I will have lots of time to post photos, news articles and Facebook updates but my contribution in that department was minor.

LosDobos did his usual awesome job of race coverage - facts, informed speculation, humour and opinion. Bats and Funderstorm jumped right in and just started writing articles and posting photos, most of which I didn't see until last night - and they were just what I would have wanted. Neither of them had worked at WT HQ before but they know the sport and many of the racers, they've watched lots of races online, they can follow and understand the implications of GPS tracking, and they are excellent writers. They had a great sense of how to tell the story online, and they were terrific at responding to questions from racers' families and friends, although it was hard to keep up with everything at times.

Thanks to all of you for your hard work over the weekend. A number of racers and families spoke with me before they left, telling me that the folks at home had been watching closely and enjoying the coverage. We're still getting nice e-mails!

DD11, it would be great if ARWC Costa Rica would adopt Grant's live coverage system. We were newbies and could have done more with it but it worked well on our first attempt! :)

Success was a combination of great tracking technology and of CP staff sending stories about the teams coming through (and some legwork by LosDobos who actually did a lot of field reporting, and I believe broke the "shoe purchase" story, haha.) When you have info coming in, all you have to do is write it up. :) We got lucky with great satellite and cell coverage.

Oops, simul-post with Bash. :) Thanks for the nice words. I was so nervous that I would write something silly due to my inexperience, so I tried to ask you some course-related questions here and there to make sure my ramblings made sense. :) If any of my, ahem, "analysis" was faulty, I apologize!So much fun doing this, though. Thanks for the chance.

I haven't found anything faulty! Even though I was there, I still enjoyed reading your stories yesterday. Sometimes we have to speculate based on available evidence, and we learn later that our speculation was wrong. But that's part of the fun of squinting at those GPS tracks and race maps and trying to get inside the teams' heads! And I'm sure the racers and the folks at home understand.

Faulty? Perhaps the comment that Team Unconquerable Badness moved from 13th to 6th on the leg from CP 3-4 because they were top orienteers and runners. In reality it appears it was because they were the first team to take up the offer of the free cold beer. It's amazing how fast people will run for beer if their spidey senses know it is nearby. Nav skills had nothing to do with it. ;-)

No in all seriousness it was fun and informative to follow along. Only suggestion would be attempt to get teams to turn on their Delorme
At the same time as it would help in determining who was in the lead though the GPS hopscotch was also fun to watch. :-)

Agreed, we made a note about that. We had a few volunteers going from team to team in the morning to ensure that they turned on the Delormes properly. But we could walk everyone through it together at one time, then do the check after that. It's always crazy before the start and hard to get everyone together and paying attention. One team even arrived at the start about 10 minutes after the others had left!

If you have a Wilderness Traverse report - from any perspective, racer or volunteer - please let me know at info@wildernesstraverse.ca. I've found a number of reports on AP but I'm bound to miss some, and (gasp!) not everyone logs on AP. Here is the reporting so far, and the list keeps growing.